


The Champion and the Dragon Master

by LynyrdLionheart



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 08:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17280161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynyrdLionheart/pseuds/LynyrdLionheart
Summary: Caroline doesn't even know why Klaus became the Champion if he wasn't going to do his job.Klaus knows exactly why he became the Champion... and it has everything to do with Caroline.





	The Champion and the Dragon Master

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Angelikah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelikah/gifts).



> Born from a prompt of Rival members of the Elite Four... adapted to Klaus the Champion and Caroline the Elite Four Leader, and now we're here. This is... something.
> 
> I take most of the Pokemon stuff from the games, some from the anime, and a lot is just me taking heavy liberties.

_Caroline_

“Umm… excuse me?”

              Caroline looked up from feeding Charizard and Dragonite Pokepuffs to raise a brow at the brown haired boy that had, apparently, doubled back to her fighting room.

              She didn’t think they were allowed to do that.  Weren’t the doors supposed to lock behind them?

              “You beat me,” she pointed out, after staring at him for a moment.  That was over-stating it a bit – if she’d _really_ pulled out the big guns, Jeremy Gilbert wouldn’t have won… but it had been, like, three months since anyone had gotten by her, and they didn’t want their champion getting lazy – but she knew that thinking that they were better than the Elite Four did wonders for the drives of these young people.  “You should be facing off against the Champion.  He’s in the next room.”

              Considering that Jeremy had managed to make it from Katherine’s room, past Bonnie _and_ Enzo to reach Caroline, she felt like he should have been able to continue following the hall with no branches to the Champion’s chamber, but maybe she had overestimated the kid’s intelligence.

              “Well, I did,” Jeremy replied, rubbing the back of his head.  “But the thing is… I got there, and it was empty.”

              “Empty,” Caroline repeated flatly.  Jeremy stared at her for a moment, looking rather fearful, before he gave a slow nod.  But Caroline had to repeat it, just to be sure that she understood him.  “ _Empty_!”

              “Uh… yes?”

              “That…” Caroline cut herself off, before she could finish saying exactly what Klaus Mikaelson was.  She returned Charizard and Dragonite to their respective Pokeballs, and charged past Jeremy through the doors.  Her long strides ate up the hall between her battle room and the Champion’s Chamber in a matter of minutes and, when she pushed the doors open, Jeremy was right.

              It. Was. Fucking. _Empty_.

              “He’s going to die,” she said to the empty room, not bothering to acknowledge that Jeremy had followed her.  “This is it.  Today is the day I finally kill him.”

              She’d always known the day would come.  She could only be pushed so far, and Klaus had been testing how far that limit was ever since he had kicked Stefan Salvatore off his throne as League Champion.  So yes, she’d known this day would come.

              She simply hadn’t expected it to be today.  If she’d known, she would have worn black.  It would have hid the blood much better than her pale pink blouse would.  At least she was wearing pants, though.  That would make it easier for riding dragons to go and hunt the asshole down.

              The asshole Klaus Mikaelson who had one job – _one job_ – and failed to do it.  He was there every other freaking day, it seemed.  But the ones where there was a challenger who actually had enough talent that Caroline would give him a shot at the title?

              Missing.

              She stood there a moment longer, wondering if it were possible to simply will another person into existence.  But will as she might, Klaus never appeared, and she finally spun on heel and charged away.  She halted suddenly next to Jeremy, and pointed a finger at his face.

              “Stay here.  Or… I’ll get someone to feed you or something.  But don’t leave the League.  You _will_ be challenging the Champion today, even if I have to kill him to make it happen!”

              “Uh… I don’t think I can – never mind.”

              She wasn’t sure what Jeremy was going to say, and didn’t really care.  So long as her glare could silence him, because now was not the time for anyone to argue with her.  Not when she was on the war path and already wondering if Charizard would like the taste of charred Mikaelson.

              Probably not.  Charizard had a delicate stomach; Caroline knew she spoiled him, but he had been her first.  There was a certain bond between a trainer and their first Pokemon that just couldn’t be replicated, no matter how close the rest of the team became.

              “Caroline, where are you – okay.  Bye then?”

              Caroline held her hand up in a sharp wave in response to Bonnie, but didn’t bother to stop and say anything.  She wasn’t sure she could.

              _Hadn’t she made it clear, last time, that Klaus couldn’t ignore his job like this? Hadn’t she been perfectly, wonderfully clear that if did, she would kick his ass dragon style?_

Forget Charizard.  She would let _Hydregion_ have him.  She was a sweetheart for Caroline, but would quite happily bite anyone else’s head off if they got too close.  She would set her loose on Klaus and when questioned, she wouldn’t even feel guilty when she said that he must have gotten bored and run off and of course she didn’t hide his body on Victory Road, Officer Jenny.

              “Charizard, let’s do this.  Again.” Charizard eyed her for a moment, and then let out a huff, letting Caroline climb onto his back. She had paused briefly to grab a leather jacket, and now she made sure it was firmly zipped up, before she patted Charizard’s head.  “Let’s find the asshole, Bud.”

              In seconds, they were hundreds of feet off the ground, soaring away from Indigo Plateau. 

              Klaus was a freak of nature who liked to show off, so of course he had built the most ridiculous mansion, just outside the Viridian Forest.  Rumor said he wanted to build in the forest, but not even the new Champion had that much sway with local government, and so he had settled.

              Caroline didn’t believe rumor for a second; Klaus was too much of an asshole to ever settle just because a government told him _no_.  Besides, the forest was all but crawling with Caterpie and Weedle, and everyone knew it was impossible to get rid of an infestation.  Only an idiot would build a house there, and Klaus wasn’t an idiot.

              Not that she would ever say that much to his face.

              Her contemplation of Klaus Mikaelson’s living arrangements lasted Caroline the entire flight to that ridiculous mansion of his.  The sight made her grit her teeth a little bit.

              Her own house, a cute little two bedroom cottage in Pewter, had cost her an arm and a leg, and she didn’t get how Klaus afforded both prime real estate and an _actual freaking mansion_.

              Maybe she should have challenged Stefan instead of taking Shelia’s old position as the leader of the Kanto Elite Four.  Apparently the role paid better.

              But after challenging all of the leagues and earning their badges, and then winning at the League tournaments… Caroline had found that she was tired of the constant travel.  And while Champion might be the bright, shiny title, keeping it was at the whims of challengers.  A loss could mean losing the position.

              As leader of the Elite Four, Caroline had job security.  She treasured that.

              “Take us down, Charizard,” Caroline ordered, leaning closer to her Pokemon’s back as he flared his wings and headed for the ground. 

              She had just finished climbing off of his back, when the door of the mansion opened.  She recognized Klaus’ lithe form immediately, but it was the canvass he carried that really gave him away.  Klaus was always drawing _something_.  Usually in a notebook, but every now and then he liked to paint something bigger.

              _But not today, Asshole._

Caroline charged forward, planting herself firmly in the path Klaus would have taken to head into the forest, or wherever he was going.

              “Ah, Caroline,” his smile was warm and bright.  “It’s wonderful to see you.  To what do I owe the honor? Have you finally decided to take up my offer of a tour?”

              “One. _Job_ ,” Caroline hissed, planting her pointer finger in the middle of Klaus’ chest.  He raised a brow, his hand sliding up to try and wrap around her wrist.  But Caroline wasn’t born yesterday, and she was rapidly learning exactly how to handle the Champion without being lured in by dimples and stupid charm.  “You have one job, Klaus.  On the rare – _extraordinarily rare_ – occasions that I let someone make it by me, you are supposed to be there.  So they can challenge you.  _It is your one. Single. Job!”_

Klaus sighed and juggled his paints and canvass for a moment, before he managed to prop it up against the edge of a flower garden that he probably paid a small fortune to keep maintained.

              Money that he wasn’t doing a particularly good job of earning!

              “God, Klaus, you’re only expected to ever battle, like, six trainers!  I don’t let them get by very often!”

              “Perhaps that’s the problem, Love.  When you _let_ them by, it’s rather boring for me, isn’t it?” His back was to her as he made sure the art supplies were placed carefully, but he took the time to shoot her a smug smirk over his shoulder.  “After all, you’ve never _let me_ do anything in my life.”

              Caroline gritted her teeth and refused to say anything.  She hated that Klaus had beat her fair and square – because she had _tried_ to keep him from making it to Stefan.  Not because she’d really cared about the previous champion; he was something she had inherited, and she’d always kind of thought that if she had been the head of the Elite Four when he’d challenged it, he never would have made it to the Champion.  But her indifference to Stefan had been beat out by leaps and bounds by her pure hatred of Klaus Mikaelson.

              Right from the moment he’d sauntered into her room, she’d known that he was going to be a pain in her ass.  It was the way he had said her name, without ever having an introduction.  The way he grinned at her, dimples cutting into his cheeks, as if he hadn’t a care in the world, and wasn’t about to challenge one of the youngest Dragon Masters ever. 

              Caroline had been a protégé of Lance himself, and Klaus had acted as though she were just a minor irritant on his path to the Champion title.

              It was one of the few times Caroline had truly gone all out in a battle, at least as the leader of the Elite Four, and it _burned_ that Klaus had beat her anyway.

              Using her own Type to boot.

              “Your Hydregion was lucky,” she replied shortly, and then waved her wrist, with its bracelet, in his face.  “And you were lucky Mega-evolutions weren’t allowed.  Or I would have been able to use Charizard, and you would have been destroyed.”

              It had been part of becoming a Dragon Master – you couldn’t gain, and keep, the title if your team wasn’t dragons.  For the longest time, it had felt like she was battling without a key part of her team – _of her heart_ – because she’d had Charizard since he was a Charmander, and her very first Pokemon.  It had been a breath of relief, when Mega-evolutions were finally allowed, and he could be a part of her team again.

              “Oh?” Klaus replied, leaning into her space.  Charizard growled behind them, and Caroline knew that with one order, she could have Klaus become barbecue. 

              _Oh, but it was tempting._

“Perhaps we should test that,” Klaus continued speaking, dragging her back from her thoughts.  “It’s been too long since you went all in against me, Caroline.  Should we see?  Mega Charizard versus my Hydregion… or maybe I should use Absol instead?”

              Caroline gritted her teeth and said nothing, a quick glance at his neck reminding her that she wasn’t the only one able to Mega-evolve.  And while she might like to act like he wouldn’t stand a chance without Hydregion, in the back of her mind she’d acknowledge that she still sometimes had nightmares of Absol’s absolutely devastating Blizzard attack.

              It had been ages since Caroline had actually been nervous when battling against an Ice Type, or any Pokemon with a Type Advantage – Katherine and her Ice team might make her sweat, but she still came out on top.  So it galled that it had been some asshole with a team mostly lacking a type advantage, a single Dragon, once Ice type who she had actually taken care of pretty easily, and a lone Ice move that had felled her team.

              She really didn’t want to discuss it.

              “Cute.  But you need to get back to the Pokemon League, so Jeremy Gilbert can have his chance to battle you.  Hopefully, the universe will show me some kindness and he’ll beat you.  I bet he won’t completely ignore schedules and only show up when he’s not needed.”

              Because when there were no challengers?  Klaus. Was. Always. There.  He was there smirking at her as she sparred with the other members of the Elite Four.  He was there to bother her when she had to do paperwork.

              He was just always _there_.

              Unless she wanted him to be.

              “You know what, no.” Caroline held her hands up and put distance between them.  Distance that had somehow disappeared, leaving them entirely too close for her current state of mind.  “Not doing this.  I’m not playing your games.  We are going back to the League. Now. Because that’s our job, and we both get paid to do our jobs.”

              “Tell me, Caroline,” Klaus said to her back, as she headed for Charizard, who continued to glare, but had yet to fry anyone.  He was such a good boy.  The best boy.  “Do you truly believe this _Jeremy_ is worth my time and effort?”

              Caroline hesitated at Charizard’s side.  When she didn’t say anything, the Pokemon bent down and nudged her with his nose.  Caroline smiled at him and hugged him, as much as a human of her size could hug a giant lizard. 

              “He beat me, didn’t he?” she finally asked, glancing back at Klaus.  “Doesn’t that make him worth your time?”

              “And if we were at the League Tournament, would he have still beat you?” 

              Caroline shrugged her shoulders, and ran her hands fondly over Charizard’s head.  He straightened, lifting her off her feet in the process, and Caroline giggled happily, dangling in the air.  When was the last time he had done that?  Probably when he had first evolved, and not yet been used to the size difference from when he was a Charmeleon.  Caroline had been twelve, and she had giggled in the exact same way.

              “Are you using your Pokemon to ignore me, Caroline?” Klaus asked, his voice suddenly much closer, and Caroline gasped, her hold on Charizard releasing in her surprise. It wasn’t far to the ground, but she could already feel the way her ankle would roll when she landed off balance.

              Warm, very human, arms caught her waist, steadying her before she could tumble to the ground. 

              Klaus wasn’t really much taller than her, so it was weirdly thrilling, to feel the strength in his arms that wasn’t overtly obvious when one first looked at him.  But he supported her weight incredibly easy until she managed to get her balance again, their gazes catching and holding.  There was something oddly soft in his eyes – something she had seen before, but always ignored – and this close to him, it was impossible to look away from it.

              But never say Charizard couldn’t ruin a moment when it was needed, because he leaned in, nudging Caroline again, this time to make sure that she wasn’t hurt, his expression somewhat guilty.

              “Oh, it’s not your fault, baby boy,” Caroline cooed, wriggling until Klaus let her go so she could lavish her Pokemon with attention.  “It was all me.  I was startled.  You’re perfect.”

              She thought she might have heard Klaus snort, but when she gave him the evil eye, he just looked back at her all too innocent. 

              “No,” she said at last, because Caroline might hate Klaus – mostly – but she preferred to be honest with herself.  “If it was the tournament, he probably wouldn’t have even made it to _me_.  But this isn’t the League Tournament, it’s a challenger, and you haven’t had one of those for a while.  So you’ll go, and you’ll wipe the floor with him, and Jeremy Gilbert will learn something from the whole experience and come back when he’s _better_.”

              “And you’ll prevent him from making it to me,” Klaus added, and Caroline shrugged, though a small smile tugged at her lips.  She hid it by kissing Charizard between his eyes. 

              “Probably,” she said at last.  “If I decide he hasn’t improved enough.”

              Klaus heaved a sigh, but he detached a pokeball from his belt.  In a flash, Hydregion appeared, one of his heads hissing at Charizard, who let out a huff in reply.  The other two heads sniffed at Klaus, obviously having scented him immediately.  After receiving pats from their trainer, the two heads turned their attention to Caroline, whose scent was also familiar to her.

              Caroline could think their trainer was The Worst, but she couldn’t ignore another good boy.  And she had a soft spot for all Hydregion, mostly because everyone else seemed to be unfairly terrified of them.  If she spent her entire life blind, she would probably be a little testy and nervous too.  And having three heads, each with their own brain?

              No wonder they could be somewhat irate.

              Even the third head finally stopped growling at Charizard when it realized the other two were getting Caroline’s attention.  Soon, all three where surrounding her, and she giggled, when one head nudged another aside to get at her hands.

              “Patience,” she said.  “I can pat you all if you just have some patience.”

              “You know, Caroline, if I didn’t know better I’d say you were charming my Pokemon away from me,” Klaus said, leaning against one of Hydregion’s necks, that soft expression on his face again.  It made Caroline’s throat tighten, and she was almost thankful to nearly be knocked off her feet, because apparently her pats had slowed too much.

              “Only Hydregion,” she replied.  “I’m pretty sure Weavile would cut off my hand if I tried to charm him.  And Absol is entirely too aloof.”

              “Ah, so that wasn’t you feeding him Poke Puffs last week when I was practicing double battles with Lorenzo.  My mistake.”

              Caroline avoided looking at him, because okay, yes.  That had been her.  But Absol was just so soft – almost as soft as Altaria – and he’d let her stroke him if she bribed him first.

              It was just good Pokemon management.

              “My Pokemon adore you,” Klaus continued.  “Weavile just likes to annoy Dragonite.  That’s why she’s such a brat.”

              “Yeah, well… your Pokemon are your single redeeming quality.” She finished giving each head one last stroke and then removed herself from amongst Hydregion’s heads.  “And we’ve wasted way too much time.  At this rate, Jeremy is going to want to put off his challenge until tomorrow.  And that will throw our entire schedule off.  Don’t throw the schedule off more than you already have, Klaus.”

              Klaus’ chuckle behind her was too warm for someone she was insulting, so she chose to ignore him, climbing back onto Charizard.  She considered ordering a takeoff immediately, but her mother hadn’t raised her to be rude, and it always took Klaus a little longer to climb onto Hydregion, as if he still wasn’t as used to flying with Pokemon as she was.

              She vaguely remembered him mentioning, once, that before his arrival in Kanto he’d preferred to walk, or even bike.  Caroline had been befuddled at the revelation, because she never felt as free as when she was in the sky, flying with her Pokemon.  Sometimes, she would do it just for fun, clinging to one of her team’s back as they pulled off increasingly more daring aerial escapades. 

              Once, she’d actually fallen off Dragonite’s back, and it had been Altaria’s habit of releasing herself from her Pokeball at will that had saved her neck.  But even then, Caroline hadn’t really been scared.  She’d learned to depend on her team too much, to ever worry that they’d fail to break her fall.

              “Up and at ‘em!” she called out once Klaus was perched comfortably on Hydregion’s back.  Charizard took off, the dragon on his tail, and Caroline let herself laugh gleefully now, as she hadn’t while on the way to Viridian.  She’d been too pissed to enjoy the flight then, but now she laughed and threw her arms in the air as Charizard went into a deep dive, and then swooped back up, just before they would have hit the water of a pond.

              “Are you bloody insane?” she heard Klaus bluster from behind her, and she blinked back at him, wondering if that was genuine worry in his voice.

              It couldn’t be.  This was Klaus. Still, in the air she was carefree in a way she never was on land, and she couldn’t help but tease him.

              “Oh, don’t tell me the big bad Champion was _scared_ ,” she called out.  “That’s not like you, Klaus!”

              “Because I don’t care?” he shot back, more of a snap in his tone than Caroline would have expected from him.  It surprised her enough, that the truth was called out in response before she could even think about it.

              “Because you’ve never underestimated my team.  Or me.”

              Klaus’ expression was startled, and Caroline quickly looked ahead, leaning over Charizard’s neck and calling an end to the showing off, because she could feel a flush high on her cheeks and she didn’t want Klaus to see it and think he’d caused it.

              But it was still _true_.

              People had always underestimated Caroline, starting with her own parents when she’d come home for a visit with a Dratini and an Swablu, and the declaration that she was going to be a Dragon Master, just like Lance and Iris from Unova, who had become the youngest Dragon Master ever just a month before.

              Liz and Bill, divorced at that time but civil for their daughter’s sake, had tried to nudge her towards a more varied team – one that included far fewer dragons, just like they’d tried to convince her to pick a Squirtle or Bulbasaur, instead of Charmander, who would eventually involve to the notoriously difficult Charizard.

              But at eleven, Caroline was already working with her Charmeleon, and she knew with a bone deep certainty that dragons were what she was meant to train.  After all, mega stones had just been discovered a few months after she started her journey, including Charizardite, which would make Charizard the dragon type it always should have been.  It was obviously kismet.

              Her parents hadn’t agreed, but Caroline had ignored them and proved them wrong.  Just like she proved everyone that underestimated her throughout her journey wrong.  Just like she still proved everyone wrong, when they saw her posters and thought it meant the Kanto Elite Four would be _easy_.

              Her fellow members of the Elite Four knew better than to underestimate her, but the first one that had really ever _believed_ in her had been Lance, and he had taught her everything he knew.

              Later, it had been Klaus who refused to underestimate her.  And even if he was an ass, that single trait was the one thing she would appreciate about him.

              Of course, he would never know that.

              _Never_.

              Still… the point was that he knew better than to worry about her and her team. 

              As if to remind him of that, Charizard pulled off another loop-de-loop that made Caroline shriek, but this time Klaus didn’t call out after her.  He shook his head when they rejoined him in time to land in front of the League… but it was with a grin curving his lips, and no worry in his eyes.

              “I may think you’re crazy,” he said, climbing off Hydregion.  “But you’re right.  I know better than to worry about you in Charizard’s capable claws.”

              Caroline just smirked back, a little smug that she’d put him in his place.  She cooed at Charizard and stroked his nose before sending him back into his Pokeball.  When she turned around, she came up short as she realized that Klaus hadn’t retreated to battle Jeremy as she’d expected.

              “Why are you still here?” she demanded, crossing her arms and scowling at him.  “You have a battle.  Go” – she waved her hands at him, as if to shoo him away – “battle him.  Win.”

              “As long as you admit I’ll win,” Klaus replied, grin becoming a smirk as he returned Hydregion to his Pokeball.  But he still watched her, and she wasn’t quite sure why.

              “I already told you that,” she pointed out, not sure what else to say.

              Klaus sighed and stepped into her space, making Caroline freeze in awareness that he was close – so very close.  She felt on high alert, an odd reaction for a woman who trained the most dangerous type of Pokemon and handed out belly rubs to Hydregions like they were going out of style.  

              But Klaus always made her skin… _itch_.

              “Someday, Caroline,” he murmured, “you’ll come to visit me because you wish to see me.”    

              Caroline didn’t know how to respond.  She felt as if she had missed something – something important – and whatever it was had left Klaus uncharacteristically somber. 

              He lifted his hand, and Caroline thought he might touch her.  She didn’t know what she would do if he did – _did she want him to touch her?_ – but he seemed to see something in her expression, or her body language, that made him drop his hand, shoving both of them into his pockets.

              “Someday,” he said again.  “But I’m a patient man.”

              He turned and headed into the League to finally do his job, and Caroline remained frozen, her gaze stuck on him until he disappeared through the doors.  The sound of a Pokeball opening suddenly sounded, and Caroline was surrounded by incredibly soft fluff, and the cooing of Altaria.

              Caroline stroked the Pokemon’s neck, closing her eyes as Altaria pressed their cheeks together.

              “He’s not patient at all,” she said, looking up to meet Altaria’s eyes.  “I don’t get him, Altaria.  He’s, like, the least patient person ever.”

              Altaria cooed again, and Caroline stroked her, but she still couldn’t look away from the doors where Klaus had retreated.

              What the hell had she missed?

 

_Klaus_

              He defeated the Gilbert boy handily, but he could admit that Caroline had been right to let him through to have this opportunity.  He had talent and potential. He may not have given Klaus a true challenge, but he’d managed to knock out Tyranitar.  Absol and Umbreon had had to work for the victory in the end.

              Hopefully he would realize that he’d never stood a chance, however, and that if he returned without proper preparation…

              Well, Caroline only ever showed mercy once.  Klaus appreciated that about her.

              Speaking of Caroline, however… Klaus glanced up at the observation deck overlooking the Champion’s Arena after he had sent Gilbert on his way.  It was the only Arena that had one, and Caroline stood there, her arms crossed as she watched him. 

              She broke the mold on Dragon Masters, another thing Klaus appreciated about her.  Whereas most went the dark and leather route, Caroline never let go of the bright colors and florals that she had worn even back when she had first taken part in a League Tournament.

              Klaus still remembered the first time he saw her in one, sixteen and in a white sundress with red flowers.  Despite being the protégé of the Johto Champion, Lance, everyone had looked at her in that dress and written her off.  Klaus recalled the way Elijah had sighed and muttered about the quality of Kanto trainers obviously decreasing.

              Klaus, however, had watched her avidly.  There had been a fire in her eyes, the type Klaus liked to believe he saw in his own, and he’d declared, for his entire family to hear, that she would make it to the Champions.

              He had been right, and then she had surpassed even his expectations, when she had beat both the Unova and Kanto champions. 

              In later tournaments, she would continue to beat every single Champion in the tournament, including her own Mentor, getting both the title of Dragon Master and the offer to become leader of the Kanto Elite Four by the time she turned twenty.

              She wasn’t the youngest Dragon Master in history, but it had been close.

              And with every tournament that passed, Klaus had known that he needed to meet the girl in the floral prints with the fire in her eyes.

              He had almost forgotten, that Stefan Salvatore was the Kanto League Champion, but Caroline’s new role as leader of the Elite Four had reminded him.  Klaus had a history with Stefan, one that wasn’t entirely pleasant.  And so, suddenly there was a path ahead of him, through which he could take out two birds with one stone.

              He could take a powerful blow at Stefan’s ego.

              And he could finally meet Caroline Forbes in person.

              All he had to do was win the Indigo League.  It wouldn’t be the first League he had challenged, after all.  When he was younger, Klaus had challenged, and won them, often.  His team was well trained and he always had an ace up his sleeve, because he liked to be unexpected and fight dirty. 

              He could still remember how Caroline had looked, when he had crossed into the room she considered her territory.  She hadn’t been wearing one of those flowered dresses – instead, it had been jean shorts and a red tank top.  When he thought of her now, it was always in that outfit, tossing her hair over her shoulder, Dragonite at her back, just as she had been when they started that first battle.

              He had been a smartass, he knew he had.  He’d also been attempting to flirt, which may have been somewhat lost during the course of their battle.  But she had been magnificent, and Klaus and his team had never been challenged like that.

              His eventual victory had come courtesy of a lot of luck, and somehow catching her off guard with Absol’s Blizzard attack – and that had been a gamble in itself; Absol had never been particularly accurate with that attack.

              Now, several months later, he still tried to flirt, and it still seemed to get lost in the space between them, because Caroline Forbes approached every interaction with him as though it were another battle.

              It was exciting.

              It was exhausting.

              “Battle me!” he called up to her.  Caroline stared down at her, and he thought her expression might have been taken aback. 

              “Your team needs to recover!” she called back, leaning on the railing of the observation deck, one arm dangling down.  It wasn’t a no, and Klaus knew that he had her.

              “I’ll get them healed.  Unless, of course, you’re afraid?”

              Klaus had learned many things about Caroline Forbes since that first battle.  She was fiercely loyal, more than a little uptight, and very much could not resist a challenge.

              “Fine!” she retorted.  “But we’ll use my Battle Room… _unless, of course, you’re afraid_?”

              “Your attempt at my accent is atrocious, Love.”

              “You’re atrocious!”

              He had flustered her, which had him grinning all the way to the on site Pokecenter, and back to her Battle Room. He came up short when he saw her there, in jeans this time, and a different shirt, but still with Dragonite there at her back.  He sometimes wondered, if it was a Dragon Master thing, to stand just like that, with the arms crossed.  It was much more attractive when Caroline did it than it had been when Lance had.

              “Well, this leaves me with the upper hand, doesn’t it?” Klaus mused as he took the position across the room from Caroline.  “Letting me know who your first choice is.”

              “I thought you could use the help,” Caroline replied, with a sweet smile that meant she was getting ready to destroy her opponent.  “You spend so much time hiding from battles these days, I thought you were maybe getting a bit rusty.”

              Having it directed at him was every bit as arousing as seeing it directed at someone else.  It really had been too long since he had done this; Caroline rarely ever accepted his challenge so freely. 

              “I’ll manage,” Klaus said dryly, tugging a Pokeball from his belt.  “Dragonite is your choice then?”

              In answer, the large dragon took her place in the space between them.  Klaus smirked, and threw the ball in the air.

              “Weavile!” The ice/dark type landed across from the dragon.  Side wise, he was dwarfed, but they both knew which Pokemon had the type advantage.

              “Jumping right to the type advantage?” Caroline called out, tossing her hair back and laughing.  “And here I thought it would take at least a couple of rounds before you went running scared like that.”

              “I simply intend to start this battle as I mean to finish… winning. The entire time.  Weavile, Hail!”

              “Dragonite, counter with Sunny Day! Follow with Fire Blast!”

              “Weavile, Double Team!”

              Sunny Day managed to stop Weavile’s hail, but the double team made the already unreliable Fire Blast miss. 

              “Now, Ice Beam, Weavile!”

              “Dragonite, Dragon Pulse!”

              The two attacks collided, and both Pokemon recoiled – although Dragonite was the worse off.  Caroline looked less than pleased, her teeth bared in a snarl.

              “Fire Blast again!” she commanded.

              This time, the attack hit true, and Weavile was sent flying back.

              “Weavile, Aerial Ace!”

              “Dragonite, Protect!”

              In the end, Weavile just managed to edge out Dragonite with another Double Team and a well-placed Ice Punch.  But he was weakened enough that Caroline’s Altaria managed to take him out with the Flamethrower that Klaus had forgotten she knew.  The giant ball of fluff went on to beat his Tyranitar as well, only to fall to Houndoom.

              Caroline sent out her Haxorus next, with it’s devastating combination of Surf and Bulldoze, that Houndoom had never stood a chance against.  It was sweet justice, that Haxorus and Garchomp both fell victim to Absol and the Blizzard that Klaus had used to beat her once upon a time.

              “I hate that attack!” She hissed, sending out Hydregion.  “I seriously, _seriously_ hate that attack!”

              It wasn’t an attack that Klaus usually relied on, but Absol seemed to be particularly effective at using it against Caroline and her team. 

              And it ensured that he had all her attention.  He thrived under her consideration.

              “I know,” he said to her.  “It entertains me to no end that you can’t seem to overcome it.”

              “Oh yeah?” He was too far to see it, but he knew there would be a glint in her eye.  One that always appeared when faced with a challenge.

              She thrived under such conditions, after all.

              “Hydregion! Let’s kick this up a notch!”

              Klaus had a plan in place.  He truly did.  He knew about her Hydregion’s Focus Blast, and knew that if he could time his own attacks right, then he could avoid it.

              It was all going along to plan, until she decided to change it up.

              “Hydregion, U-Turn!”

              The bug attack took him completely by surprise – and Absol as well, leaving him unable to battle.  Klaus cursed, even as Hydregion was automatically switched out for Charizard by the attack.

              “Umbreon!” he called.  “Your turn.”

              It was fitting, that they would pit Charizard and Umbreon against each other.  It hadn’t happened when they had fought officially, but just as Charmander had been Caroline’s first Pokemon, Eevee had been _his_. 

              “You’re going down!” Caroline called out to him, and she held out her bracelet, Charizard roared, reacting to the Charizardite X, and within moments Klaus and Umbreon were facing the black and blue dragon type.

              “Charizard, Wing Attack!”

              “Umbreon, Charm!”

              As the battle got heated, _Klaus_ began to feel exhausted.  He could only imagine what the Pokemon themselves must feel like.  He swore it looked like Umbreon was breathing wildly when they took a quick rest to evaluate each other… and was Charizard almost touching the ground?  He definitely was hovering as high off the ground as usual.

              In the end, Umbreon took a particularly nasty Dragon Pulse, just managing to hit Charizard with a Last Resort in the process.  Both Pokemon went down hard, and, after a couple valiant attempts, failed to get up again.

              “You’ve gotten better,” Klaus muttered, his eyes narrowed as he brought out his last Pokemon.  Caroline didn’t say anything, but everything about her was steely with determination as she did the same.

              It would come down to a battle of their Hydregions.

              Klaus tried to recall what moves hers knew, but considering the surprise U-Turn against Absol, he couldn’t count on knowing everything. 

              “Hydregion, Outrage!” Caroline shouted, immediately going on the offensive.

              “Dragon Rush, Hydregion!” Klaus commanded.

              The two dragons collided in the air, and Klaus winced when both attacks landed, sending the dragons flying apart, and tearing up pieces of Caroline’s battle room in the process.  He saw her wince as well, and wondered if she was mentally calculating the cost of the damages.

              It seemed like a Caroline thing to do. 

              The battle continued with opposing Dragon Tails, and Klaus smirked lightly, thinking of the surprise _he_ had now.

              “Ice Fang!” he called out, when both Hydregions retreated to opposite sides of the room to take a moment to breathe.

              “Shit!” he heard Caroline curse as his Hydregion went on the attack once more.  “Hydregion, Protect!”

              Klaus cursed himself; he didn’t remember her Hydregion knowing Protect – yet there it was.  It managed to curl in on itself just before the Ice Fang would have hit.

              He’d known that Caroline’s Hydregion had better speed than his, and it proved that when it came immediately out of the Protect, to finally land a Dragon Tail.

              Klaus’ Hydregion didn’t stand a chance as it was slammed back into the floor, and didn’t get back up.  Across the room, Caroline’s landed hard on the ground and staggered sideways.  Klaus thought it might go down, too, but it managed to hold on – just barely.

              “Poor Baby,” Caroline cooed, immediately rushing down to the dragon once it was clear he had won her the battle.  She pulled out a berries and fed all three heads, rubbing each one.  “You did a good job.  _Such_ a good job.  You won it all for us.”

              The Dragon rumbled, and Caroline returned him to his Pokebal as Klaus did the same.  He sighed, and then smiled at her.  He strode across the room, and held out his hand. Caroline stared at it, her gaze darting up to his, and then back down again.

              “You’ve been weird today,” she said at last, ignoring the offered hand.  “Like, weirder than usual.  Which is saying something.  Is something… wrong?”

              She was almost hesitant as she asked, her gaze on Hydregion’s pokeball, a faint flush on her cheeks.  It was so rare, to see her anything less than confident, and Klaus contemplated her with narrowed eyes.

              “Are you saying you could only beat me if something was wrong?  Now, that’s not at all like you, Caroline.”

              Her eyes flashed angrily, and she planted a hand on her hip and she glared at him.

              “Hardly.  But if there _is_ something wrong, I’d hate to think it meant you gave anything but 110% to our battle.  _That_ would be lame.”

              “I’d never give you anything less than 120%.  I’m quite incapable of it.” As he spoke, he stepped into her personal space, and Caroline’s anger sputtered out as she looked at him, incredibly confused.  Klaus wondered if she had been so focused on achieving her goals that she had failed to learn to recognize the all too human emotions of others… or if it was just because it was him and she had decided to dislike him, and it left her unable to recognize that his feeling for her were anything but negative.

              “What is _wrong_ with you?” she asked, and he was pretty sure it was supposed to be snappy, but it really just sounded more breathless.

              So perhaps not quite as unaware as he’d thought.

              He wondered what she would do, if he simply tugged her close and kissed her as he’d imagined doing a hundred times during the arguments he so enjoyed goading her into, just to see her eyes flash at him.  Caroline never dedicated anything less than all of herself to an argument, and Klaus was never so happy as when he had all of her attention on him. 

              But when he took another step towards her, she stiffened just a bit, and it was a reminder that, for her, he had decided to be a patient man. 

              He had decided to wait until she came to him.  Foolish decision.

              “I think I may deserve sainthood after this, Love,” he murmured, and her befuddled expression was actually quite adorable, and made him chuckle.  But he couldn’t keep his distance entirely, so he reached out, and tucked her hair, damp with sweat close to her scalp, behind her ear.

              He grinned at her, and ran his thumb over her chin, before spinning on his heel to take his Pokemon to get healed.

              “ _What the hell_?” he heard behind him, almost too quiet to reach him.

 

_Caroline_

“You look like someone took a shit in your cereal. What did that tea do to you?”

              Caroline looked up from the mug she had cradled in her hands.  Her grandmother used to make her tea when she was troubled; Grandma Forbes had died when Caroline was seven, and she could hardly remember her… but she remembered that little thing.  And somehow, the habit had stayed with her all of these years. 

              So when Klaus had left her in her battle room, feeling completely off balance, Caroline had gotten her Pokemon healed, and then retreated to the breakroom shared by all the trainers of the League and made herself tea.  And that was how Enzo found her.

              “You have a thing with Bonnie, right?” Caroline asked after considering him with a contemplative expression.  “I mean, it’s a weird thing I don’t quite get.  But still a thing.”

              “ _A weird thing_?” Enzo repeated with a raised brow.  “Is that what we call flirting these days?  If so, then yes.  Bonnie and I have a weird thing.  We also have a mutual weird thing with Kol from Viridian, but that may be too complicated for this.”

              Enzo grabbed a chair and spun it around before straddling it, resting his arms along the back.  He motioned with his hand, and Caroline slid her tea over.

              “Well, that’s terrible,” he said, making a face after taking a sip.  “You let it go cold.  Cold tea doesn’t help anything, Gorgeous.”

              Caroline shrugged, and stayed silent as Enzo got up and proceeded to make her a new cup of tea, as well as one for himself.  He still used her mug – it was her favorite, pink with a stylized Dragonize on it. 

              “Let that steep for at least three minutes,” Enzo said to her, when he returned with both mugs.  Caroline rolled her eyes at him, but set the mug aside as commanded.  Enzo sat down once more, and then just stared at her.

              She stared back.

              He sighed.

              “Gorgeous, this only works if you talk to me.  I can’t read your mind.  Bonnie is the psychic, remember?”

              “She trains Psychic Pokemon,” Caroline grumbled, jabbing at the tea bag to avoid looking directly at Enzo.  “It’s not the same thing.  She just likes to freak people out by telling them it is.”

              “Stop poking, Caroline!  You’ll ruin it.” He slapped her hand away from the mug, and Caroline scowled at him, but twined her fingers together and rested them in her lap.

              “Klaus is being weird,” she said at last.  “Like, more weird than usual.”

              “Ah… actual weird?  Or weird as in the thing I have with Bonnie?  Because Gorgeous, flirting isn’t weird.  You know that.  I’ve seen you do it before. You’re quite good at it, considering you’re crap at emotion otherwise.”

              “I’m perfectly good at emotion!” Caroline argued.

              “You’re the child of a broken marriage who, instead of seeking out therapy, decided to try her hand at training the most dangerous and vicious Pokemon breed outside of legend.  Yes, Caroline, you are perfectly good at emotion.  No assistance needed there.  I guess I can just go away.”

              Enzo stood up, his hand gripping the handle of his mug, and turned to leave, only for something to hit him in the back of the head.  He turned around with a scowl, as a tissue box fell to the floor at his feet.  Caroline looked at him, one hand still in the air from having lobbed it, and gave him her best sweet smile.

              “Oops?” she said, and Enzo sighed, picking up the box and sitting once more.

              “Rude.  But I’ll accept this as your emotionally stunted way of asking for my help.”

              “I’m not emotionally stunted!”

              Enzo raised his brows and took a sip of his tea, keeping his brows raised as he looked at her over the edge of his mug.  She stared back, and they engaged in a silent battle of wills until Caroline finally scowled and slumped back with crossed arms.

              “Okay, whatever.  I’m… whatever.  Just tell me what’s wrong with our idiot Champion so I can stop worrying. I don’t like worrying about people I don’t like, Lorenzo.”

              “First – for someone that claims to hate him, you just sounded a lot like our idiot Champion just now.  So keep that in mind.  Second – that’s the problem right there, Gorgeous.  You _don’t_ dislike Mikaelson.  And he doesn’t dislike you.  But you don’t seem to be aware of that.”

              Caroline wondered if she looked as much like a Magikarp as she felt, gaping at Enzo as she was.  _You don’t dislike Mikaelson._ What did that even _mean_?  They were her emotions.  She was pretty sure she knew whether or not she liked someone. 

              “You’re crazy,” she said at last.  “He makes me want to punch something.  When he’s around, I feel hot and cold at the literal same time.  His stupid face is stupid.”

              “Gorgeous, we both know that the only punching of that man that you want to do is with your lips.  On his.  Even Bonnie agrees, and you know that if you said the sky was purple she’d take your side just to annoy me.  It’s our version of foreplay; very effective.  You should try it.”

              She gaped again, because okay, maybe she wasn’t the best at emotion, but as Enzo had said – she wasn’t completely clueless.  She knew how to flirt.  She’d had a handful of flings while she was on the road – admittedly, they had to stay flings, because the nomadic lifestyle of a Trainer wasn’t exactly good for one’s relationship status. 

              Still – she wasn’t _that_ clueless.  She’d know if she had a thing for Klaus. 

              And okay, so maybe she _had_ noticed his dimples that day they first met… and most days afterward.  But she wasn’t blind, and Klaus was objectively good looking.  Like, it wasn’t even her opinion, it was just cold, hard fact.  Even Katherine admitted as much, and she had sworn off men entirely after the Elijah Affair.

              “Gorgeous, look me dead in the eye and tell me that Klaus Mikaelson doesn’t have a thing for you.”

              Caroline leaned forward, pushing her tea aside, and met Enzo’s gaze head on.

              “Klaus Mikaelson-”

              _Klaus Mikaelson was not a patient man.  Yet he said he would be… for her._

_She was pretty sure Klaus Mikaelson didn’t even_ want _to be a Champion that badly, yet there he was, lurking around her.  Coming to the League when she demanded it._

_Klaus Mikaelson purposely let his Hydregion out around her, and let her cuddle with it, and feed his other Pokemon… like he was using her biggest weakness against her._

_Klaus Mikaelson…_

“- might have a thing for me,” she said, her voice half awe at this new fact, and half shock at her own stupidity, because he wasn’t a subtle man.  He was putting out all the obvious signs, short of an actual, literal sign.  “Holy shit.  How did I miss this?”

              “How did you miss what?” Katherine drawled, sauntering into the room.  She eyed Caroline, who was doing her best Magikarp impression, and then looked at Enzo, who was looking ridiculously smug.  “You told her?  Or did she finally figure it out?  We need to know for the pool.”

              “Half and half?” Enzo replied, frowning at Caroline thoughtfully.  “I mean, I nudged.  But she was already starting to put the dots together.”

              “Hmm… I’ll have to check the book.  See who figured on that.  But other more important things.”  Katherine grabbed another chair and straddled it like Enzo.  “What are you going to do with this _brand new information?”_

The last three words were mocking, and Caroline would have rolled her eyes, only the question behind them was a legitimate one.

              Okay, so Klaus had a thing for her.  But what about _her_?

              “I’m really terrible at emotion,” she finally said, because how the hell was she supposed to handle this?

              “So I said.  And you called me a dirty liar.”

              “If it helps, I’m pretty sure you’re still better at them than Klaus himself,” Katherine mused.  “I mean, sure he might have realized he had a thing for you quicker, but his way of handling it was basically out of an elementary crush handbook.  I’m pretty sure he stopped his emotional maturation at about seven, and you made it to at least ten.”

              “So you’re saying that we’re both disasters.”

              “Pretty much.  Have fun with that, Care Bear.”

              Caroline groaned and buried her head in her arms. 

              “What did I miss?” asked Bonnie brightly.

              “Caroline figuring out that Klaus has a thing for her,” Katherine responded.

              “Oooh… who won the pool?”

              Caroline just groaned louder.

 

_Klaus_

Klaus sat in Caroline’s office, his feet propped on her desk, when the woman in question came in, her brow furrowed as she read something on her tablet. 

              When she noticed him there, she froze, coming up short, her eyes widening.

              And… that sounded like a high pitched _eep_ that came out of her mouth.  Had he ever heard Caroline _eep_ before?

              He didn’t think so.

              “Good morning, Caroline,” he said, giving her his most charming smile.

              “What are you doing here?” she demanded after a beat of silence between them. 

              “I’m the League Champion, am I not?  I’m just here, doing my job, as you wished.”

              He expected a glare and some smartass remark.  What he got was an embarrassed flush and no eye contact.  Klaus narrowed his eyes and sat up, removing his boots from her desk.

              “Are you okay?” he asked, and Caroline kept her back to him, shrugging uncomfortably. 

              “Never better,” she replied with false cheer.  “Why wouldn’t I be anything other than great?”

              Klaus stared at her, and she finally looked back, a smile on her lips that was completely and utterly fake. 

              “Because I’m here, and I make your day worse?  Because I’m secretly Satan?  Because you’re busy and I’m interrupting?  Are any of these statements ringing any bells, Caroline?  I can continue to list more if you want.”

              “I’m… turning over a new leaf?” she didn’t sound at all certain about that.  “Being more optimistic and kind, or something?”

              She gave him another smile, equally fake, but more weak than the other, and turned her attention to her tablet, as though by ignoring him he would leave.  Which was foolish.  She had attempted that before; he never left.

              Usually it was to get a rise and those fiery eyes out of her… but this time it was because there was obviously something wrong with her.

              “Can I help you?” she asked when five minutes had passed and he made no move to leave.

              “Not at all,” he replied with a smirk.  “I’m content here, just basking in your presence.”

              She didn’t respond at first, and Klaus found himself leaning forward, trying to catch her eye as she stared down at the screen of her tablet.  She didn’t look, but her fingers stilled, and he knew she was very, very aware of what he was trying to do. 

              “Caroline, do I need to take that tablet from you?” he asked, tapping his fingers on her desk.

              “Don’t you start that!” she snapped, her head shooting up, one hand leaving the tablet to jab a finger at him.  “I swear to god, if you start tapping those fingers I will have Hydregion _eat them_!”

              Ah, there she was.  And truth be told, he’d actually forgot about her loathing of finger tapping.  But no reason for her to know that.

              “I hear that if you give a Hydregion a taste for human flesh then they’ll never give it up.  Are you sure you want to risk it, Love?”

              He lifted a finger as if to tap it again, and she actually pulled what, he assumed, was Hydregion’s ball from her belt and held it up like a threat. 

              “He. Will. _Eat._ You,” she growled, enunciating each word carefully. 

              “Perhaps he will… but I doubt Absol will allow that to happen.” Klaus held up his own Pokeball, and looked idly around the office.  “Do we think they’ll both fit in here?  It’s rather small, given you’re the Leader of the Elite Four.  You should demand bigger.”

              She glared at him with narrowed eyes, and Klaus tried to look back innocently, but finally his lips curved into a smile, unable to hide his amusement any longer.  He actually began to chuckle, dropping his hand from her desk, and Caroline rolled her eyes, her own smiling curving her lips.

              “God, you’re an ass.”

              “Ah, but would you have me any other way, Caroline?”

              “Probably not,” she admitted. 

              It took a moment for both of them to realize what she had said.  When they did, their laughter cut off, both of them freezing.  The space between them was suddenly tense with something that hadn’t been there before.

              No, that was wrong.  It _had_ been there before, in the past… on occasion.  In those moments when they both became suddenly aware that there was _something_ there, if only they looked at it closer.

              Klaus was always willing to look.  It was Caroline who continuously walked away from that unnamed _something_.

              “What are you doing?” she asked him at last, but for once it wasn’t a way to break the tension.  If anything, it just increased.

              “Keeping you company,” he replied easily, with a smile.  “Isn’t that obvious?”

              “Don’t be obtuse, Klaus.  You know what I mean.”

              “Ah.” Klaus leaned back in his chair, balancing carefully on the two hind legs.  How to go about this?  Did he acknowledge it?  Or use avoidance until the time was better?

              How exactly did one tell when the time was better anyway?

              “Isn’t that obvious?” he asked again, but this time there was nothing easy about his tone.  “I’m flirting.  I’ve been flirting since I showed up in your battle room, ready to face you down.  I’ve been flirting since I defeated Stefan and took his title, just so I had an excuse to stay near you. Perhaps the better question is – _what are you doing_ , Caroline?”

              She finally set that blasted tablet aside, and twined her fingers together, resting her hands on the desk in front of her.  Klaus stood and walked around the desk, so he could rest his hip against it, and look down at her.  She tilted her head back, watched him. 

              “I’m not sure I know,” she said at last.  “You make me legitimately insane.  You know that, right?  Like, genuine madness.”

              “That’s how I flirt.  It’s been relatively effective.”

              “That’s a matter of opinion.”

              Klaus chuckled, then cut off abruptly when Caroline reached up and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him down so that he was bent in half.  It was remarkably uncomfortable, but he found he didn’t care when she pressed her lips to his.

              After a moment of surprise, he slanted his mouth against hers, and slowly straightened, pulling her to his feet as he did so.  Caroline went willingly, and pressed her body against his when he wrapped an arm around her waist, and buried the other in her hair.  She kept her grip on his shirt, her thumbs grazing his collar bone.

              It was so very sweet, to kiss her like this, to press their bodies ever closer together.

              He thought she might be as warm as one of her dragons… until her warmth was gone and Klaus was stumbling back.           

              Caroline stared at him, her eyes wide, her hands pressed to her lips.  Klaus raised a brow at her, straightening his shirt.

              “You could have simply said you wished to stop kissing.  No need to shove.”

              “I have no idea why I did that,” Caroline replied, her eyes still wide and shocked, her voice muffled by her hands.

              “Really?” Klaus hoped his voice properly expressed his exasperation.  “No idea whatsoever?  None at all?”

              “I… you… you were there.  And talking.  And I didn’t know what to say to the flirting thing, and I figured I’d make you stop talking.  And the best way to do that was, you know, with my lips.  I think?” She groaned and buried her face in her hands.  “What the hell are we doing, Klaus?”

              “We’ve already established that _I_ am flirting.  You are the one who seems uncertain of the situation, Caroline.”

              She kept her face buried in her hands, and Klaus huffed out a sigh.  Apparently this hadn’t been the right time… but it damn well hadn’t been him that had done the kissing, had it?  That had been all her. 

              He went to walk by her, only for her hand to dart out and clutch his shirt.

              “Caroline-”

              “I liked kissing you,” she cut him off.  “But also, you kind of make me want to actually set a dragon on you, Klaus.  So maybe you could, like, give me a second?  Please?”

              He held utterly still, and she continued to clutch his shirt as she held her other hand to her face.  He could practically see her mind whirring. 

              But Caroline had never been the type to stay indecisive long, and so it took a relatively short time for her hand to drop from her face, a look of determination on her face.

              “Okay,” she said with a sharp nod, as though she had come to a decision.  She didn’t say anything further, however, and Klaus finally cleared his throat.

              “Care to share, Love?” he asked.

              “I… yes.  Yes I would,” she said, another decisive nod.  Her grip on his shirt tightened, and once more Klaus found himself kissing her.  Her legs clutched around his hips, and her hands moved from his shirt into his hair. 

              Klaus still wasn’t sure exactly what decision had been made, but kissing seemed like a good thing.  Kissing meant that she was close to him. 

              He wanted her to be close to him.

              “Okay,” she said, her voice breathless.  She pushed away from him, but there was no shove this time, leaving them still in contact.  “Okay.  So… it turns out I’m attracted to you.  And not just like, because of all that” – she waved her hand at his face, as if to encompass the _all that_ – “but, like, the kissing thing works for me.  And weirdly enough I think I might not hate your personality.  Which is a surprise.”

              “Thanks, Love,” Klaus replied, voice eternally dry.  “I don’t hate your personality either.”

              “Of course you don’t,” Caroline replied, looking vaguely insulted.  “I am an absolute delight.”

              Her affront was so real that Klaus had to laugh.  He looked away from her, in a weak attempt to hide her laughter from him, but a quick glance up showed that she sat with crossed arms, gaze unimpressed.

              That just made him laugh harder.

              “Caroline,” he said, brushing tears of laughter from his eyes.  “I, too, enjoy kissing you.  And I also like your _all that_ ” – he waved his hand, to encompass her face, biting back another laugh when she smacked at it – “and since we’ve already established that I don’t hate your personality… I would very much like to take you out on a date.”

              “A date?” Caroline repeated, looking somewhat taken aback.  “Like, as in dating?  Like, being my boyfriend?”

              Klaus made a face at that, because boyfriend seemed so very immature.  Caroline just shrugged.

              “I’ve never done the dating thing.  I mean, I travelled a lot.  Like, a lot a lot.  Years a lot.  And then I travelled more.  And then I came here… and people are kind of intimidated by me.  Once they stop underestimating me, I mean.”

              “Sweetheart, it’s not that complicated.” Klaus pressed himself against her, and kissed his way up her neck, and then on her eyelids, the tip of her nose, and back to her lips.  Once he was certain she was breathless, he pulled back.  “Truth be told, it won’t be much different than now.  We spend time together.  Occasionally we battle.  Sometimes, you let me take you to restaurants, where we can dine, together.  That’s really the only new part.”

              “Are you saying that you were secretly tricking me into dating you?” Caroline asked with narrowed eyes.

              “Yes, that was my nefarious plot.  Just date you until you realized we were dating.  No, Caroline – it just so happens that you’re somewhat of a workaholic, and I don’t see that changing, which means the time we spend together will still involve me weaseling my way into your presence and taking some of your time.  I’ve resigned myself to this.”

              Caroline rolled her eyes, and pressed a finger to his nose.

              “Well, now you can show up when there’s a challenger instead of making me chase you.  You don’t have to be annoying to get my attention anymore.”

              “Oh, Love – that won’t change.” He leaned in and kissed her again.  “I’m entirely too fond of the way you look at me when you’re in a minor rage.  And it gets you fresh air.  That’s important.  It’s just showing how much I care!”

              Caroline scowled at him, and then he found himself being manhandled out of the office.  He could have stopped her, of course, but it was, perhaps, a bit of a turn on to be handled in such a way.

              Klaus had some very specific kinks in regards to Miss Caroline Forbes.

              “You’re an asshole,” she stated.  “I don’t know why I like you.  God, I have terrible taste.”

              “You sweet talker,” Klaus drawled.

              Caroline tried to stay unimpressed, but in the end, she gave a rueful smile, and let him steal another kiss.

              “I’ll be back to entice you into lunch,” he called over his shoulder.  “You’ll work through it otherwise!”

              As he walked down the hall, he found himself whistling.

              That hadn’t been at all what he expected when he decided to lurk in her office… but he was hardly going to complain.


End file.
